Friday, February 15, 2008

In-Progress At Daytona: Craftsman Trucks On SPEED

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks-off Friday night beginning at 7:30PM with The Set-Up. This pre-race show is hosted by Krista Voda.

Coverage of the race follows at 8PM live on SPEED. Rick Allen again handles the play-by-play with veteran Phil Parsons and the always colorful Michael Waltrip alongside. Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander return to handle pit road reporting duties.

SPEED has been consistently good in covering this series, which many believe is the best-produced TV coverage of the three NASCAR national touring series. This season will allow SPEED to try and continue the NASCAR momentum the network has built-up with the exceptional coverage of both pre-season testing and the Daytona Speedweeks.

This page will serve to host your comments about the TV coverage of the Craftsman Trucks from Daytona on SPEED. To add your opinion, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions.

The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Please remember this is a NASCAR TV blog, and your views should contain a TV reference to the event. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Picture looks good on my screen...but that crash. wow..the only thiing I notice is the NASCAR on SPEED logo is a little off my screen..but it could disappear for me if they can't make it transparent or smaller. :)

I seem to remember somebody griping about the mileage somebody got last year during the truck race...didn't remember if it was this one....I do remember Skinner dedicating a win to his late dog Opus....wild evening so far

Wow what a crash fest. Good job by Speed trying to determine causes and most appropriate Ray's biggest question "are you alright", yes the drivers are more important than the the trucks. Thanks for staying on PJ's buring truck until we we sure he was out. And yes Kyle there are still losts of laps to go so patience patience patience. You would have thought the red flag would have cooled these guys off a little bit but apparently not. Ray's awfully busy outside that infield car center

I like Mikey, he's actually the reason I started to watch truck races, I recognized his voice and stopped flipping channels. I haven't noticed him being too Mikey but like I said I like him to begin with.

I just realized that Nascar Live starts at 9am tomorrow, I am almost on Nascar overload. Thank goodness for the new DVR or no clean clothes for this house's residents plus I stopped burning dinner. (no TV in the kitchen)

I don't understand why Speed, Fox or Truckseries.com do not provide internet updates for the trucks. Truckseries.com has qualifying updates but no race "in progress" updates. A FoxTrax or Jayski style "semi-live" race update would be most welcome.

In my opinion, the trucks need a bigger online presence to get the attention they deserve.

When Mikey is happy he doesn't seem to try so hard and things flow better. They may also have gotten some signals in the booth to keep Mikey from going overboard (Mike Joy and Larry Mac prob have the same to keep DW from going over the edge):)

Well I love Mikey but gotta admit, earlier in the race, his voice was an octave higher at one point and a semi-screech...I decided not to post about it here and thanfully, he went back to his normal voice.

And I say that as somebody who likes his normal speaking voice. :) These guys in the booth are great...and are quick to correct themselves.

The trucks rock! And great broadcast with Rick, Phil & Mikey. Todd deserved to win and am happy for him and his team. And Houston's David Starr coming in 4th is wonderful, of course we won't see it in the Houston Chronicle tomorrow . . . . .

Only thing I would say for them to watch is the in-car shots when there's so much going on in the front of the field. I found myself saying 'change shots, change shots' several times when we were looking out the side window at the fender of the truck beside us while passing was going on in the front of the field.

I'm amazed Kyle didn't wreck Bodine for the win. He's so careless when it comes to races outside of his series. Those full time truck racers have a lot more to lose if they wipe out, he just jumps out and strutts away to his camper.

I still enjoyed the telecast. I'm afraid I won't be saying that after tomorrows race.

Kyle's truck is running full-time this year for the owner's points. He and Stremme are splitting it. He pointed out in the interview after the race that he's racing for points this year, meaning other guys better get used to him not rolling over and getting out of their way because his truck is full time like theirs now.

Speed only let us see 3 trucks cross the finish line - not good. I hate that cable cam that Fox/Speed uses for the finishes of these Daytona races. Even if they had held the camera at the line like they did in the Shootout last week it still would have been impossible to distinguish the vehicles from one another and tell who beat who to the line. We'd just see the vehicles come from nowhere, enter the picture for half a second, zoom across the line, and never be seen again. There's just no way to follow the battles to the line when all we can see is a milisecond of a bunch of blurs zooming past the infield cable cam at the finish line.

You can still zoom in just fine on the battle for the win at the line by using a rooftop camera with the vehicles coming at it, and then hold that camera at the line to show the rest of the vehicles racing through the tri-oval and crossing the line.

I really really really hope Fox uses a rooftop camera to show the live finish of the Daytona 500 and not the cable cam.

JD - No live leaderboards for the truck series (at least that I could find). Only streaming of the radio feed and periodic updates on certain sites. I gave up looking and put my laptop away to watch the race via TV only (old school - haha!).

Thought Mikey did a great job last night and enjoyed the broadcast. It was kind of funny when they couldn't decide whether Gaughan hit Skinner or not. I like those impromptu debates!

I did notice the HD replays would freeze up quite often. That was odd. Other than that, really enjoyed the HD broadcast.